Forever a World Away
by tigermoonlight67
Summary: Renee's second daughter, Sienna Dwyer, gets on a plane to Washington. She's hoping to meet her sister Bella for the first time; instead she meets Bella's daughter. But what is Nessie hiding from her?
1. Chapter 1

"Sienna, are you _sure_ you'll be alright?" It had to be the millionth time this morning. Not counting all the days we'd talked about it before that, of course.

I smiled convincingly. "I'll be fine, Mom."

"And Michelle is sure her parents are alright with you staying for a _whole_ month?"

"We've talked about it, Mom. They're fine with it."

Mom sighed. I could tell the only reason she mentioned it was because she wanted me to stay here.

Dad was being a bit more discrete about it. "I love you, sweetheart. Be careful up there."

I nodded, and gave him an awkward hug that Mom joined, squeezing the three of us together so that I almost couldn't breathe.

"Air, Mom," I choked out, and she quickly let go.

"Are you _sure–_" she started again.

"Mom, I'm eighteen. I'll be fine." She nodded, and finally let me walk away without stopping me again so I could get on the plane.

I sighed as I found my seat and shoved my carry-on bag into the overhead bin. I didn't have to do any more pretending today. That was good.

I relaxed into the seat, plugging my ears with my iPod headphones. Thank goodness everything had gone as planned so far. This was probably the biggest scheme I had pulled off in my life, and the hard part of it was now over.

Yeah, this whole thing–me being on an airplane, going to visit my friend Michelle Cheney–was a complete hoax. There was another reason I was going to Washington.

I wanted to find my sister.

Well, she's technically my half-sister. I'd never met her; never heard much at all about her, actually. But I wanted to find her, and this was the first place for me to look.

I have two qualities that brought this whole escapade about: first is my hopelessly constant curiosity. Second, my propensity for lying.

I'd found a photo album just before my birthday this year that peaked my curiosity. It had her name, 'BELLA' written in all caps across the front. The first picture was of Mom and a man that definitely wasn't my dad holding a little, bald baby in a hospital. The next page was one of the same baby, a little older now, with just my mom. I flipped through the pages that traipsed through this girl's life, toddler pictures, birthday and holiday pictures, school pictures. In one or two others, she appeared with the man in the hospital that I safely assumed was her dad.

It was all so fascinating to me. I'd heard my mom talk about Bella once or twice, and I knew Mom had been married before she and my dad got together, but I suppose it had never really registered with me that this girl was my _sister_. Looking at all this hard, physical evidence of her life had made her seem real, and it had poked at my curiosity like a sharp pencil.

The last few completed pages of the photo album were dedicated to her wedding. There was a picture of her in this fabulously Anne-of-Green-Gables-type, lacy, white satin dress, with our mom, and another of her with her dad. One was of her standing under a flowery archway next to a pale-skinned, hotter-than-humanly-possible young guy with warm golden eyes. Tossing a bouquet to a crowd of young women, dancing with that golden-eyed man again, et cetera, et cetera. There were only a few pages left in the album, but no pictures after the wedding. The pencil poking at my curiosity was gone, and replaced by the poking of some sharp knife/spear thing.

I brought it to my mom and asked her about it, and she told me the whole thing. Yes, that was Isabella, and her dad was Charlie Swan, and that man she married was called Edward Cullen, and they'd lived in some little town called Forks, which was in Washington.

"So, why haven't I met her?" I asked. "She is my sister, right? Does she know about me?"

I remember Mom biting her lip before responding. "Well, she moved in with Charlie up there when she was seventeen, just after I married your dad, actually. And I sent her a card about you, but I haven't really heard from her since her wedding." I didn't say anymore on the subject after that. I didn't ask why she hadn't spoken to Mom since her wedding, or whether Mom had tried to talk to her, or whether she didn't like my dad and that's why she left, or any of the questions that I thought would have made Mom upset. I wasn't really trying to preserve her feelings, not that I would have done anything to hurt her. I was just more preoccupied with the plan that was forming in my mind. I wanted to meet this elusive sister, this 'Bella Cullen.'

So I started making arrangements. I already had a friend living in Washington, one Michelle Cheney of Port Angeles that I'd met through an online pen pal program in middle school. She was a few years younger than me, but she and I got on pretty well, even though her parents existed in a different generation than mine did. I convinced my Mom that I wanted to go up to Port Angeles to see her in the summer, and she went along with the whole thing, scrounging up the money for a plane ticket and everything.

What she didn't know was that I'd called Michelle and cancelled the plans for the summer, citing a sudden family engagement that I needed to be present for. She'd accepted the story with few questions, and agreed that maybe we'd get to meet each other in person some other time.

So here I was, on a plane to Seattle, caught up in the biggest scheme I'd ever come up with. I've always prided myself on being a good liar, though I never really used it to get out of things. My skill wasn't something to waste on those pathetic _I-didn't-break-the-lamp_ schemes that let everyone tag you as a dishonest person. It did, however, make me a good actress, and I was using that to my advantage. It was how I'd managed to stay straight faced when Mom asked me about Michelle and her family this morning.

I wasn't entirely sure why this little curiosity was driving me all the way to the other side of the country. It wasn't like I really needed to see Bella. I'd lived without her my entire life. I didn't even know if she was still in Forks. Maybe a part of me needed to see my sister so that I knew she was real. Maybe I wanted to know if she'd like me, or if she even knew about me. Maybe I was looking for some kind of mystery to solve, my last hurrah before I went off to college this fall. Heck, I didn't know why I was doing it! But I was, so why did the reason matter?

I heard the flight attendants beginning the safety information briefing, and listened inattentively through the whole spiel, pressing my head against the plane window. _Only that much more time until I get to meet her_, I thought. _My mysterious sister_.

**A/N: Okay, I saved this for last. This is my first fic, so please please PLEASE review! Any input you have would be helpful.**

**Oh, thanks to my beta, Spazzy-Mia-Zara, for telling me to post this.**


	2. Chapter 2

After getting off of the much smaller plane that took me from Seattle to Port Angeles, I rented a car and bought a map. As far as I knew, there wasn't much else that I needed. I'd already gotten an address to pursue-Charlie Swan's-and now it was just a matter of surviving the lonely drive to Forks.

I played with the radio dial a bit, trying to find something that wasn't rap music. _I wonder what kind of music Bella likes,_ I thought to myself. I myself could stomach pretty much anything that wasn't rap or country, or had more shrieking than singing.

It was those kinds of questions that kept me busy the whole way to Forks. What did Bella look like now? Did she have kids? What was her favorite food? What did she do for fun? What kind of movies did she watch? They seemed like such stupid questions, but when you have a sister that's been missing for your entire life, things like that keep you occupied endlessly. Really, by the time I got into town, I'd only covered about a fourth of the questions I could have invented.

I found the address I was looking for pretty easily. It was an old, two-bedroom house, not anything too special to look at. I was surprised to find that I wasn't really nervous. Of course, this wasn't Bella's house, and I didn't really expect her to be here, but I felt like I should feel at least _some_ kind of anticipation.

As I got out of my rental car, I noticed something unusual–there were more cars here than I expected. In addition to a police cruiser, there was a flashy red BMW convertible outside the house. I blinked as I took a second look at the car. Well, could anyone blame me? It was kind of...unexpected. I mean, it looked lost here. None of the other cars on this street looked shiny, let alone expensive.

I got my head around the oddly-placed car and marched up to the front door, knocking loudly several times. The person who opened the door was very far from who I expected to see.

Standing in front of me was a girl who looked to be about my age, except much, much prettier. She had warm, chocolate brown eyes and a mass of curly, bronze-colored hair. All of her facial features were perfectly proportioned, and her skin was pale, but in this beautiful, alluring sort of way.

"Um, hello? Did you need something?" she asked me, and I realized that I'd been staring at her. Suddenly, I was embarrassed. I couldn't possibly be at the right house.

"Sorry. I'm looking for Charlie Swan. I thought he lived here...am I at the wrong address?"

She laughed. "Nope, you're at the right place." She turned around and called out behind her, "Charlie? Someone's looking for you."

"Can I...?" I asked, motioning behind her to the inside of the house.

"Oh, sorry. I'm being rude." She grinned a bit and stepped aside, allowing me to walk in. A young man who looked to be in his early twenties, maybe, was sprawled out on the couch watching some sports game on TV. He had shaggy black hair and russet skin, and wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He eyed me curiously for a moment, before turning his eyes back to ESPN.

Another man was just appearing from the adjoining kitchen, looking much more like the person I was expecting. He had curly brown hair that was beginning to gray, and I knew immediately who he was from the pictures.

"Someone was looking for me?" Charlie said.

"I'm Sienna Dwyer," I said, deciding to cut straight to the point. "I'm Renee's daughter, and I'm looking for Bella."

The TV was instantly muted, and room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was suddenly looking at me.

"You're Renee's daughter?" Charlie asked quietly. I guessed that meant they had known about me. I nodded.

"And you're looking for Bella?" the guy on the couch added.

I almost rolled my eyes. _Isn't that what I just said? _"Yeah."

He nodded in response, but it looked like he was thinking something completely different.

"You came all the way up here to see my mom?" the girl asked.

"Is she your mom?"

She blushed a bit. "Yeah, Bella's my mom. I'm Renesmee, but almost everybody calls me Nessie." Okay, so Bella did have kids. Or at least one, anyway.

"Oh," I responded. I wasn't really sure what to say. "Hi."

She grinned at me sheepishly, as though she didn't really know what to say either.

"Nessie," Charlie said, "I think you should go call your family, and let them know Sienna's here."

"That's probably a good idea," Nessie agreed and headed into the kitchen, while Charlie sat down in a chair, looking a bit dazed and confused. The guy on the couch flipped his legs over onto the ground and motioned for me to sit, which I did.

"So, Sienna," he said casually, "why did you decide to come up here to Washington?"

I was getting a bit exasperated. "I told you, I wanted to meet Bella. Mom hasn't talked to her in years, and I was thinking I'd like to see her for myself, you know? Prove that she's a real person."

"So you just decided to come up here to Forks? Does Renee know you're here?"

I shrugged. "Yeah, 'course." She didn't know what I was here _for_, but that wasn't what he asked, was it?

"And did anyone here know you were coming?" Charlie asked me.

I almost laughed at that. I hadn't even been sure if anyone knew I _existed_ up here. Why would I have called? "Not really," I responded. "Sorry if it's an inconvenience or anything, but I couldn't even be sure you were still here, let alone Bella. She _is_ here, right?"

He considered this question for a moment. I could hear Nessie in the other room, conversing with someone quietly on the phone, too quietly for me to hear. I wondered what she was saying.

"Well," Charlie said finally, "she doesn't live here anymore, not year round. She still comes back during the summer to visit me sometimes." _What?_ I thought. _That still doesn't tell me if she's here or not._

"She and the family, of course," the younger guy added. "I'm Jacob, since no one else bothered to introduce me. I'm a…well, a friend of Nessie's, I guess."

I smiled and continued pumping for information. "So, is their family big?"

"You could say that," Jacob replied, chuckling to himself. "There are definitely plenty of them to go around."

Plenty of them to go around? Did that mean Bella had more kids than Nessie?

It got quiet again, and I could hear Nessie's whispered conversation in the background. She was practically hissing into the phone. I caught a few words clearly every once in a while, but not enough to make sense of what she was saying.

I was thinking over the whole 'family' thing when I heard Nessie whisper a last phrase and hang up the phone. She came back into the room, grinning in a tense, strained sort of way.

"Is Bella here?" I asked impatiently, before she could say anything.

Nessie chewed her bottom lip. "Well, no, not really. Are you hungry at all?"

My stomach answered that question for me by growling loudly. I hadn't even noticed how hungry I was until now. True, the last time I ate was before I got on the plane from Jacksonville, but that didn't really concern me. What _did_ concern me was the fact that I'd flown across the country to find a sister that supposedly wasn't here. Well, if she wasn't in Forks, _where was she_?

"Jake and I were just going to get some dinner anyway," Nessie said. "Why don't you come with us?"

I smiled, but on the inside I was bursting with questions, and not the useless ones I'd been coming up with on the way to Forks. I felt like...no, I _knew_ that she was hiding something from me. There was something she really didn't want me to know.

"Okay," I said, pulling up all of my enthusiasm. "Sounds good to me."

**A/N: Alright, first of all, a big thank you to the people who favorited, put this on story alert, or especially reviewed! I'm glad to know you guys are enjoying it, and knowing that got chapter 2 finished that much faster, so thank you!**

**I'm not sure exactly when I'll be posting again, but it should be fairly soon. So keep an eye out, and again, please review!**

**Oh, and of course thanks to Zara, for beta-ing.**


	3. Chapter 3

"Shotgun!" Jacob called as Nessie took the driver's seat of the shiny red convertible. I fought the urge to roll my eyes at him as I slid neatly into the back. Then I took a moment to collect myself, and see if I could come up with a tactful, unsuspicious way to find out where Bella was. As it turned out, I couldn't.

"It's going to rain again soon, isn't it?" Nessie whined, glaring out the windshield at the gray wall of cloud.

Jacob laughed. "In case you haven't noticed, Ness, it's raining here almost all the time."

"I _did_ notice that, thanks, Jake." Her irritation disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and she sighed wistfully. "I just wish it wasn't so rainy. I don't _like_ the rain. It's depressing."

"Yeah, you've lived all over the place, but you can't go somewhere _sunny _for once!" Jacob exclaimed, shooting her a teasing grin. He was rewarded with a glare from Nessie, and became instantly contrite. I would have been puzzling over what he said, but I was too busy trying to get information. _So, she's lived all over the place, has she?_

"Where exactly have you lived?" I asked innocently.

Nessie shrugged. "All over. Northern California, Chicago, England for a while when I was younger. Right now we live in New Hampshire, and I'm just here for the summer. You live in Florida, right?"

"Jacksonville," I specified, and I could see her smile in the rear-view mirror.

"It must be nice to live where it's sunny," she said. I shrugged.

"I guess so," I said. "I've never really liked Florida that much—it's too humid for me— but being up here in the cold rain _almost_ makes me want to go back."

"How long are you planning to be here?" Nessie asked.

"A month or so."

"Oh," she said. I couldn't tell whether she was happy or upset about this. I waited for her to say something else, but nothing came out. The radio cut the silence, but I didn't see who turned it on. I had been sitting quietly for another minute when my phone suddenly vibrated. I sighed and dug it out of my pocket.

It was a voicemail message from my mom, left only ten minutes ago, while I was in Charlie Swan's house. I was a little surprised that she hadn't called sooner than this. I guess Dad had persuaded her to wait for a while.

I smiled as her voice came through the phone. "Sienna, it's just Mom. I wanted to make sure your plane came in and that you're alright. Call me when you get this, okay? Bye, Sweetheart!"

"We love you," my dad's voice added, and I heard a click as the message ended.

I did want to call my mom and let her know I was okay, since she is one of the champions of worrying. But I also didn't want to miss any opportunities to ask Nessie questions.

As a compromise, I sent her a text message, telling her that I was fine, that I was busy with Michelle, and I would call her later. If she decided that wasn't enough, I hoped I could count on my dad to stop her from jumping the gun.

I felt the car slowing and looked up. Nessie was parking in front of a little diner, and I grinned. Now it would be just the three of us, facing each other. Maybe now I'd get some answers.

I ordered a cheeseburger, and Jacob ordered three.

"Eating light today?" Nessie teased him. I stared, bewildered.

"That's eating _light?_" I asked.

"Yeah, I eat a lot. Is that an issue?" he shot back.

I shook my head. "Not at all." I turned to Nessie, who hadn't ordered anything. "Are you sure you're not eating?"

"If I get hungry I'll just steal Jake's food," she said with a smile. He grinned back at her, or at least his mouth did. His eyes stared at her as if he just couldn't get enough of her face. I was a little bit shocked as I realized I didn't know how they knew each other, or what Jacob had been doing at Charlie Swan's. Were they together? _Never mind_, I thought to myself. _Maybe I'll figure out later. There's other stuff that I want to know._

"So, do you have any siblings?" I asked Nessie.

"Nope, it's just me."

"Jacob made it sound like you have a pretty big family, though."

Nessie took a minute to look at me, and I wanted to shrink away from her gaze. It seemed like she was assessing me, looking for something…but I had no idea what she was looking for.

Finally she said, "You don't know much about my family, do you?" she asked. "Renee didn't tell you anything?"

"She told me that Bella got married to Edward the summer after she graduated high school, but I couldn't get too much out of her besides that." I hadn't wanted to try, she'd seemed so upset about it. "But Edward had a sister, didn't he?"

"Two sisters, actually, and two brothers. All of them were adopted." Renesmee looked a little confused, and something else…suspicious?

"My mom mentioned something about his sister, Alice, when we were talking about Bella's wedding," I explained to her, wishing she'd stop looking at me like that. "She said Alice was really obsessive about the details, and she was so excited it was contagious."

Nessie giggled. "I've seen the pictures of my parent's wedding," she said. "Alice planned it, so the whole thing was really over the top. The entire place looked like a crazy explosion of white flowers, and—"

"I know; I've seen the pictures too."

Nessie giggled again. "It's very _Alice_," she said. "My mom hadn't wanted a big wedding; she only settled for that because it would have broken Alice's heart _not_ to do it."

The waitress came to the table and set our food out in front of us. As hungry as I was, I forced myself to eat the fries slowly, one by one. Maybe if I could draw this out as long as possible, I'd get something more.

"Speaking of your mom," I began casually, "where is she, if she's not here?"

"She and my dad decided to stay back in New Hampshire, while I'm up here in the rainy corner of the world." She sounded nonchalant, but she was chewing on her lip, the way she had back at Charlie's.

"Well, is there a way that I could reach her, or something? Give her a call? Let her know I want to meet her?"

Nessie sighed. "Listen, Sienna. I'm really sorry you came all the way up here to find my mom, and I'm sorry she's not here. I'm sure she really would have loved to meet you. But it's probably better that you just drop the whole thing, okay?"

What was _that_? I flew across the country for my sister, to find her. And then, just like that, she tells me to _drop it_?

"Please?" she said again, as though she were pleading with me.

I shrugged, keeping my face indifferent. "Fine," I said, and she relaxed immediately. In the privacy of my head, I was saying something very different. _If you knew Sienna Dwyer better, you'd know you have more coming for you,_ I thought. _I'm definitely not giving up that easily._

**Okay, I'm back! This chapter took much longer than I'd originally planned, but I was having severe writer's block, and then I had to study for semester finals, and the Christmas season made everything more crazy, so, yeah. It's finally done, and this chapter wasn't supposed to end here, but I thought it was getting long, and this seemed like a better place to stop. I've already got part of the next chapter in the making, so hopefully it won't be too long until chapter four is here.**

**This is getting long, so a quick thanks to everyone who favorited or added this to their alerts, and an even bigger thanks to those who reviewed! It's nice to know what you think, because if I were writing for myself, this wouldn't be on the Internet, m'kay? As usual, thanks to Zara for beta-ing (again).**

**Thanks for checking this out and let me know what you think!**


	4. Chapter 4

When I decided I couldn't eat any more of my burger, I played with the straw in my Coke glass.

Nessie seemed to notice right away. "If you're done, we'll give you a ride back to Charlie's so you can get your car."

"Where are you staying, anyway?" Jacob asked. I could feel myself blush as I realized I didn't have a good answer.

"I'm not really sure," I answered.

"You don't have any plans at all?" Nessie asked me, and I shook my head.

"Well, there's enough time that you could probably make it back to Port Angeles. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a hotel room somewhere." I was silent.

Nessie just looked at me. "You…you were planning on staying here, weren't you?"

I could feel myself blushing again. "Yeah, I guess."

"Um…I'm really sorry, but that's probably not a good idea right now." She seemed almost as embarrassed as I was.

"Well, it's just that it's kind of a problem for me to go back to a hotel. Don't you think it's a waste for me to drive all the way out there, just to come all the way back in the morning?"

Nessie nodded. "That's true." She seemed to think about it for a minute, and then she sighed. "Just let me go and call my family, to make sure they know you're coming." She turned and headed in the opposite direction. _Victory._

I stood around by the door, tapping my foot impatiently. How long did it take Nessie to make one phone call?

"Have fun tonight," Jacob said suddenly. He sounded...I couldn't place it. Sarcastic, maybe?

"And what, exactly, is _that_ supposed to mean?" I asked him.

"Don't be peeved," he said. "I'm really trying to help."

"Really, Jacob, what do you mean?"

He grinned and looked like he was about to reply, when Nessie reappeared next to us, and the three of us stepped out of the little diner and into the cool, wet night.

"Can I drive?" Jake asked suddenly, as we approached the car.

"Aw, Jake, don't do this to me!"

"What? Barbie already hates me!"

"Aren't we antagonizing Rose enough just by letting you _sit_ in her car?"

Jacob chuckled. "She won't kill me; she's had too much practice restraining herself." I got the feeling that they'd forgotten I was there, because I had no idea who or what they were talking about.

"So, what do you say? One little test-drive can't bother anyone but Rosie, can it?" Jake pleaded.

Nessie rolled her eyes, but smiled playfully. "How about this: I drive us home, and then you can take the Ferrari out for a spin. Sound good?"

Jacob's eyes lit up when Nessie let the word _Ferrari_ out of her mouth. "Fine. I guess there are other ways to annoy a shallow, irritating blonde."

"That's the spirit," Nessie teased, and the three of us got into the car.

Jacob fiddled with the radio dial while Nessie drove, and I sat in the back, preoccupied with my thoughts.

"Who's Rose?" I asked suddenly, not giving them any time to think.

"She's my…cousin," Nessie said, and I caught the hesitation.

"She's a psycho," Jacob muttered, just loud enough for us to hear, and Nessie laughed.

"Amendment: she's my cousin who doesn't get along with Jake. And she's obsessed with her car." Well, that sort of explained the previous discussion. Apparently, Rose didn't want Jacob in this car.

"And she's at your house right now?" I questioned. "Who else is there?"

Nessie thought about this for a second. "Well, there's me and Jake, of course. Rose and her boyfriend Emmett are there. And Jasper might be hanging around somewhere, too."

"Jasper? Another cousin?"

Nessie nodded firmly. "Right."

"Right," I repeated, and fought back a scowl. I was completely positive that Nessie was hiding something. The way she hesitated, how she'd warned me off in the diner, it all meant that I wasn't getting the bigger picture.

What could there possibly be that she didn't want me to find out about? Why was she lying? It didn't make any sense.

We spent about another twenty minutes in the car, with Nessie trying to make conversation. She'd ask me questions about myself, and tell me things about herself in return. I tried my hardest to be peeved—I knew she was trying to distract me from what I _really_ wanted to know—but I gradually found myself being drawn into the conversation. It was just really hard _not_ to like Nessie. I had to admit, whatever secret she was keeping, she was nice enough. Sometimes Jacob would throw in a random comment, and the things he said usually made me laugh.

We pulled up at a beautiful, gigantic white house. It was probably more than a hundred years old, but it didn't look aged at all. The paint wasn't faded or chipped. The windows and doors looked original, but they couldn't be, if the house was as old as I thought it was. No, it wasn't old; it was outside of time.

Nessie noticed my staring and giggled. "Yeah, it _is_ a pretty nice house. Now, c'mon. You've got to come in and meet everybody."

"I think I'll sit this one out, Ness," Jacob said quickly. "Can I have the keys to the Ferrari?"

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Have fun," she said, tossing him a key. "Don't be too long."

"Oh, trust me, I won't be," he replied, grinning like a maniac.

Nessie looked to me and shook her head. "Guys and their cars," she said, and we laughed as she led me inside.

"Hey, everyone, we're back!" Nessie called out. I took a look around, taking in every detail. The inside of the house seemed more modern than the outside. It was very light and very open, like they'd knocked out walls to make the room larger, and the entire back wall was made of glass.

"Nice house," I said quietly to Nessie, but she didn't reply. Two people were approaching us, gliding down the stairs so easily they could have been walking on air. The first was a young woman, my age or maybe a bit older, and way prettier. She had the kind of beauty that could have made Aphrodite jealous. Long, blonde hair and pale, perfect skin, golden eyes, and the kind of body that even swimsuit models would kill to have. It was odd; I felt like I'd seen her somewhere before.

The guy next to her was completely different, and yet, exactly the same. He was muscled like a weight-lifter, and he had dark, curly hair. But his skin was the same ghostly pale, and his eyes were the same bright gold.

"Sienna, this is my cousin, Rosalie, and her boyfriend, Emmett. Em, Rose, this is Sienna Dwyer, my mom's half-sister."

"Cool," Emmett said, grinning. He held out his hand, and I shook it politely. Rosalie, on the other hand, looked at me for a few seconds before turning to Nessie. "Is your dog out of my car?" she asked.

Now I was confused. "Dog? What dog?"

"She means Jake," Nessie said absently, before answering Rose. "I let him take the Ferrari out," she said.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and stalked out the front door.

"Nice job, Nessie," Emmett scolded jokingly. "Now she'll be in the garage tuning the car for hours."

"It's not my fault Jake likes cars and hates Rose, alright, Emmett?" Nessie's impatient tone suggested that they'd had this conversation before. "Sienna, if you come upstairs I can show you your room." I half-shrugged and followed her up the stairs, still preoccupied. _I recognized her, I was sure of it. Where had I seen Rosalie before?_

**Okay, so there's chapter 4 for you. I'm sorry, I didn't expect it to take this long. On the plus side, chapter 5 is nearly finished, so it'll be around sometime.**

**Thanks to the three people who reviewed the chapter before this, you guys are awesome! I wish I'd gotten more, though. I don't want to annoy anyone by irritating people, but I _like_ reviews. Don't most people?**

**Points if you can guess where Sienna's seen Rosalie before. Maybe I've stumped you all!**


	5. Chapter 5

"This is my room," Nessie said as she opened the door. "Our room, while you're here."

The walls were a light yellow, both levels of the bunk bed had matching snow-white bedspreads, and across from the bed was a table with a television sitting on it. A computer sat on the wood desk in the corner next to the door, and there was another door on the other side of the room, probably to a closet or a bathroom. Considering that the room belonged to a teenager, it wasn't all that decorated.

"I only stay here in the summer," Nessie said, like she knew what my question was. "My grandmother Esme set it up for when I'm here, so she decorated it. Do you want to see the closet?"

Without waiting for my reply, she glided over to the other door and threw it open. I gasped. There were rows and rows of clothing. I was willing to bet that this closet—which was almost the size of the bedroom—held an outfit for every day of the year, and then some.

"This is…wow! Is all this stuff yours?" I told her. She just laughed.

"I only use it when I'm here for the summer. I thought you seemed like someone who'd appreciate this."

I spied a blue shirt that I almost recognized. "I have something sort of like this. It's in my…oh, crud."

"What?"

"My suitcase. I left all of my bags in the trunk of my rental car, which is still at Charlie's house."

"Oh. Well, it's a little late to go back now. Um…how about I loan you some of my stuff for the night, and we'll go get your car in the morning."

"I guess that's fine."

She grinned. "Sorry about that. I should have remembered to get your stuff."

"It's okay. I'll live."

"I have to run downstairs for a minute," she said. "Wait for me?"

"Sure. Where else can I go?" Nessie chuckled and flitted out the door.

I felt oddly tired. How late was it, anyway? I flipped out my cell phone, which read nine o' clock. That meant that it was midnight in Florida. My mom! I had told her I'd call later. She was probably still up, waiting by the phone.

I hit the speed dial and listened to the ringing, trying to decide how much I should say. My mom needed to be completely convinced that I was with Michelle, but I didn't want any of my new extended family to know that I had lied to come here. Even though I was fairly sure no one was in hearing range, I didn't want to chance it. Any questions about who Michelle was or why I told my mom stories of things that didn't happen would be hard to answer.

"Sienna? Are you there, sweetheart?"

"Hi, Mom."

"How are you doing? Are you having fun up there?"

"Sure, it's great. The weather's been cloudy, but it _is_ the Olympic Peninsula."

"What have you been doing with your friend?" I internally winced, and it was hard to sound casual.

"I dunno, stuff? We talked a lot. We went out for dinner, and she introduced me to some of her family." Technically, all of this was true. I'd done all of these things with a friend, if Nessie could be called my friend. "What have you been up to?"

I let my mom talk about her day, about how much she'd missed me.

"You're not saying much, sweetheart. I thought you'd be more excited."

"It's nothing. I'm just tired," I lied easily. Nessie slipped in quietly, noticing that I was on the phone. "It's been a pretty busy day. Why don't I talk to you after a while, okay?"

"Well, if you're absolutely sure…"

"Yeah, I'm sure, Mom. I don't want to keep you on the phone too long. Tell Dad I love him, will you?"

"Of course I will. Bye, honey."

"'Night, Mom."

"That was your mom?" Nessie asked quietly.

I nodded.

"My grandmother," Nessie said thoughtfully. As odd as it sounded, I realized she was right.

"Yeah, I guess she is. You've never met her, though, have you?"

Nessie shook her head. "I'm sort of named after her, though. Renesmee is a combination of my grandmothers' names, Renee and Esme."

"Cool." _So, Bella named her daughter after Mom, but never bothered to see her again?_ This entire story was making less and less sense.

"I'm kind of tired after the plane and everything. D'you mind if I just crash now?"

Nessie smiled. "Not at all. I'll find you something you can sleep in."

Nessie went back into her closet and emerged with a tank top and a pair of cotton pajama shorts.

"Sorry about leaving your stuff. Again."

"It's fine." Nessie pointed me to a bathroom down the hall where I could change. I put on the pajamas and took out my ponytail, tugging my fingers through my wavy brown hair.

When I came back Nessie was sitting at her desk, messing with her computer.

"You can have the top bunk. I'll go downstairs if you don't want distractions."

"You won't bother me. Thanks, though." I climbed up into the bed, and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I was alone in Nessie's room when I woke up, which surprised me. The clock on the nightstand said that it wasn't quite eight in the morning. Apparently, I'd slept for about eleven hours. I really needed a cappuccino.

Fairly sure I wouldn't fall back asleep, I shoved off the covers and climbed out of bed. I decided I'd take a closer look at Nessie's room.

I walked over to the desk and gently flicked through a stack of paper. All of it was blank, probably for her printer. There was a shelf above the desk with some old-looking paperbacks on it—_Pride and Prejudice, The Phantom of the Opera, Romeo and Juliet_. Nothing but classics. I wondered if they were hers, or just an unused decoration.

In one corner of the desk was a digital picture frame, flipping back and forth between two pictures. One of them I recognized; it was one of Bella and Edward's wedding pictures. The second was of Renesmee outside with Jake. His arm was around her shoulders, and she was hugging his waist. Maybe they were dating, then.

"You're up, then?" I turned around and saw Nessie grinning at me, already dressed for the day. She held out something that I recognized as my carry-on bag from the plane.

"Jake and I went over to Charlie's earlier and got your car for you; I hope you don't mind that I borrowed your keys from your purse. I didn't look through your stuff, I swear!"

I laughed a little, but felt a twinge of guilt at the same time. Wasn't that what _I _had just been doing? Snooping? How ironic.

"I left your suitcase over in that corner," she continued quickly. "I thought you'd want your own clothes this morning."

"Yeah, that'll be good. Thanks a lot."

"Do whatever you need to do to get ready, and meet me downstairs in the living room, okay?"

One hot shower later, I trotted down the stairs in jeans and an orange t-shirt. Only in the Olympic Peninsula would it make any amount of sense to wear jeans in the summer. Nessie was waiting for me on the spotless white couch, a Styrofoam cup in her hand.

"Jake and I got breakfast. Do you like cappuccino at all?" she asked, handing me the cup.

"How did you know?"

She just grinned. "Lucky guess. There's a box of doughnuts in the kitchen, or what's left of a box after Jake got to it, anyway."

She led me into the kitchen where, sure enough, only two doughnuts remained in a box that should have held a dozen.

"He probably just left them to be nice," Nessie told me. From what I'd seen of Jacob, I'd have to agree.

"D'you want one of these?" I asked. She shook her head.

"Sorry, I ate earlier."

Nessie was pretty quiet while I ate doughnuts and sipped cappuccino. "What are you going to do, then?" she asked me.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you came all the way up here to meet my mom, and she's not even here, so I figured you'd just…well…"

"Leave?" I asked. She nodded, looking the slightest bit embarrassed.

I sighed and played it casual. "Well, I don't want to bother you or anything, but I think I'd like to stay for a while, just see where Bella used to live. I mean, I'm supposed to be up here for a month. No offense, but it would be kind of dumb on my part to cut my summer short. Why waste a plane ticket, right?"

She smiled at me, and she seemed happier that I planned to stay than she had yesterday night. "Yeah, that sounds good. What are you thinking about doing today, then?" I shrugged; I really had no idea what I wanted to do, as long as I could stay and snoop around longer.

"What would you say to going back up to Port Angeles, then? We could see a movie, maybe." I agreed with a nod of my head.

"Good. It's settled, then."

In the end, we spent a good part of the day in Port Angeles. Nessie had wanted to bring Jacob along, and so the three of us all went, again in the red BMW. Seeing a movie turned into browsing the mall, which then turned into messing around on the boardwalk. Before we knew it, the day was almost completely gone. We finally got back to Forks at nine thirty.

To my dismay, all of the running around gave me little time to ask questions. I noticed that Nessie ate very little at lunch again, but no one bothered to explain why. All of the conversation was kept far away from Isabella Cullen, or anyone in Nessie's family, for that matter. I didn't push the issue, since I knew already that they would probably just ignore any questions they didn't want to answer. Despite all of that, I was really growing to like Nessie and Jake. They were fun to be around, even if they _were_ keeping secrets from me.

Back in Nessie's room, I dug through my suitcase, trying to find my own pajamas for tonight. I flipped things aside, trying not to throw them around the room and make a mess of someone else's space.

Frustrated, I dumped the suitcase over, causing everything to spill out over my bed. From the corner of my eye, I caught something slipping off, falling to the floor with a sharp 'thud' before I could catch it.

It was Bella's photo album, the one that had started this entire scheme in the first place. It had landed on its spine and fallen open to the part near the end, the pictures of Bella's wedding. Bella and Edward staring into each other's eyes while they danced together. The newlyweds shoving cake into each other's mouths. Bella with her arm around the short, black-haired girl that I knew to be Edward's sister, Alice.

On the side of the picture, something—or rather, someone—caught my eye. Standing in the background, just behind Bella and her new sister-in-law, was a stunning young woman in a silver dress, her blonde hair piled on top of her head.

I continued to stare at her, though I didn't need any second looks. I knew exactly who this woman was. _Rosalie._

Tucking the photo album under my arm, I rushed out of the room and down the hall. I needed to find Renesmee; she had some explaining to do.

**So, did ya like it? This chapter's longer than usual. I hadn't planned to have this up quite so soon, but I think the reviews helped. So, thanks to my six reviewers! You guys rock! (And you're really perceptive; points-as promised-to the people who guessed where Sienna had seen Rosalie!) Don't worry, Bella's coming in a very short time.**

**Thanks also to my beta Zara for being patient when I forget to attach documents, lol.**

**As mentioned, I like reviews, and I'm hoping for more, so please click the button! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

As it turned out, I didn't have to go far. I ran into Renesmee at the end of the hallway. I wasn't sure where she'd been, and I didn't care.

"Something's up," I said, planting myself in front of her. She stopped suddenly, as if she'd only just noticed I was there. She stood there, frowning at me and looking completely clueless. I couldn't tell if she was serious or just acting.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

I rolled my eyes. "I mean _this_," I hissed, flipping the photo album open to the page I had marked. I pointed to the picture; Bella and Alice—and Rosalie, looking as young and beautiful as she had looked the night before.

Shock crossed Nessie's face when she saw the picture I was pointing to. Then, suddenly, her face changed. She squeezed her eyes shut, her lips twisted into a concentrated frown.

So quietly I could barely hear, she whispered, "Think about something else. Think about your mom." She grabbed my wrist lightly and pulled me back to her room.

_Think about my mom?_ It was another thing that just didn't make sense, but I did it. I trusted Nessie, to some extent. I thought about my mother; the way she looked when she was happy, what she might be doing right now. Most likely she was reading one of her new, sappy romance novels. Either that, or looking for something she'd lost.

We were back in Nessie's room. She still looked like she was concentrating very hard as she turned on her television and started a movie. I sat on the bottom bunk of the bed, still concentrating on my mother.

Nessie went to her desk and grabbed a pencil and a blank piece of paper. _Watch the movie_, she mouthed to me when she caught me staring. I turned my eyes to the screen and stared at it, trying to concentrate on the figures interacting with each other. Nessie took the paper and started to scribble out a note. She handed it over to me, and I read through the note written in her neat script.

'_Write down your questions, and I'll do my best to answer. When you're not writing, think about the movie.'_

Well, if she was going to give me answers, I wasn't going to argue. I scrawled out, '_What are we doing?'_ and handed the paper to her.

'_We're lying.'_

We were lying? To who? No one could hear us; heck, we weren't even talking.

Nessie noticed my confused look and scrawled another note: _'Just ask quickly.'_

Okay. I could do that.

_'Why is Rosalie at Bella's wedding? She looks the same in the picture as she does now.'_

_'You wouldn't believe me if I explained it.'_

_'Try me.'_

_'Rather not.'_

I scowled. What happened to answering my questions?

_Movie_, Nessie mouthed, and I flipped my eyes back to the screen once before writing: _'Why are you keeping secrets from me?'_

She scribbled while I stared at the film—some old chick flick from years ago. She handed the paper back to me. _'My family asked me to. They said it was better if you didn't know.'_

_'Your family; like Bella?'_

Nessie winced when she read it, but wrote back anyway. _'Yes, like Bella. Please don't hate me for lying.'_

_'I don't. I just wish I knew what there is for you to lie about.'_

The characters on screen had only exchanged a few more lines when Nessie handed me her reply. _'How much do you want to know? What would you do to find out?'_

I answered easily. _'Anything.'_

_'Even if it were dangerous?'_

I almost laughed. How could it be dangerous? What kind of secret were they keeping? She was turning this into something out of a horror movie! But, despite all of the melodrama, I really wanted to know.

_'Yes.'_

Nessie sucked in a deep breath, let it out, and then began writing. She slipped the note into my hand.

_'I'll need to get Jacob over here. I have a plan. Watch the movie, and don't think about anything else, okay?_'

I nodded. It was easy enough, in theory. But as Nessie hit a speed dial on her cell phone, I couldn't help but think about what was going on. This was it; I was finally going to know the secret. It hadn't taken all that long to get Nessie to cave, either. I very nearly smirked.

"Hey, Jake, it's just me. Listen, Sienna and I wanted to know if you could come back over and watch a movie with us, or something. Do you want to pop in?" I listened for an answer, but couldn't hear anything.

"Okay, sounds good. Get back here as soon as you can. Bye!" She ended the call and breathed a sigh, then turned her attention back to the movie. I wondered why she didn't just tell him what was going on; probably for the same reason she had made me write my questions to her on paper. I lounged back on her bed and tried to imitate her, figuring out what was actually happening on the screen.

I could have sworn it wasn't five minutes later that I heard Jacob pounding down the hall. He came into Nessie's room all smiles.

"Hey, Nessie. You guys decided you needed more of me? What are we watching?"

Before he could say any more, Nessie crossed the room and put her hand to his cheek. He stopped, looking completely zoned out. I was sure for a second that he was seeing something completely different from what was in front of him.

A few seconds later, he snapped out of it, nodding to Nessie. "Sounds good," he said casually. I knew he was agreeing, but I had no idea what he was agreeing to.

Nessie picked up the paper and pencil again, scrawling a quick note to me.

_'This is going to seem weird, okay? Just trust me.'_

Like most of the things we'd just been doing _weren't_ weird? My eyes rolled up into my head before I nodded and handed her the paper.

_'I need you to climb onto Jake's back and let him take you downstairs.'_

I stared blankly at the paper for a second. She wanted me to do _what?_ Was this supposed to dangerous, or just some stupid hoop she was making me jump through? But she had just told me to trust her. There had to be some reason for all of this crazy stuff.

I looked at Nessie, and she nodded. Jacob smiled encouragingly. _Okay, then,_ I said to myself. _Here goes nothing._

I crossed the room and put my arms around Jake's neck. He hefted me up onto his back, holding onto my knees.

Nessie and Jake walked casually out of the room and down the hall, while I clung tightly to Jacob's back, and tried not to think about this, replaying images from the movie we'd just been watching in my head.

As soon as we got to the stairs, we broke into a run. Or, at least, it must have been a run, because one second, everything was a blur, and the next, we were standing at the doorway to the dining room.

"Look, Sienna," Nessie said quietly, and I peeked up around Jacob's head.

Sitting around the dining room table were six of the most beautiful people I had ever seen. Some of them I recognized, some I didn't. Rosalie occupied a chair at the head of the table, and Emmett was sitting next to her. At the opposite end of the table was a young blonde man with the same pale skin and gold eyes that Emmett and Rosalie had. The woman on his right was smaller, with caramel-colored hair and, again, those gold eyes.

I only looked for a brief second at the guy in the middle, barely long enough to recognize him from the wedding photos and wonder how it was possible that he was here, looking exactly like he did in the pictures, the same way Rosalie did. Someone else caught my attention—someone more important.

She was so different from what I'd expected, so much so that I was surprised I recognized her at all. She had pale white skin, angular features—the same inhuman beauty as all the rest of them. But if I concentrated hard enough, I could see the slightest resemblance to the pictures upstairs, mostly in the color of her hair, which was almost the exact same shade as mine.

But there had to be some other explanation. Logically, she couldn't be here. She couldn't be eighteen years old, same as I was. She couldn't be staring back at me with piercing gold eyes. It couldn't be her.

It couldn't be Bella—could it?

* * *

**Okay, so there you have it. If you stuck with me for all of that, I promise there is a reason for all of the craziness Sienna and Renesmee just went through. Besides the fact that this chapter was caffeine-induced, it was supposed to be this crazy in the first place. If you don't figure it out, the reasons for all this will be included in a future chapter.**

**I got (checks information) 7 reviews for chapter five! Seven!!!!! It makes me so happy to read your reviews, and every time I see them it makes me want to write more, so thanks! I'm glad you guys are liking this!**

**I suppose I should go and do my much neglected schoolwork now :( Thanks to Zara, as usual. Tell me what you think of this! Please and thank you.**


	7. Chapter 7

I barely noticed as Jacob carefully plucked me off of his back and set me on my feet. The shock of what I was seeing had me frozen.

I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I knew very little about my sister, but I was absolutely positive that she was about twice as old as I was. I knew she had brown hair like mine, and brown eyes like Mom's. And I knew that she had pretty much dropped off the face of the earth after her wedding.

I had to have it wrong. The person standing in front of me wasn't my sister. Maybe she was Nessie's sister. Maybe she had Bella's hair, and everything else was Edward's. That would mean Nessie had lied—again—when she'd said she was an only child. Oh, well. I'd already forgiven her for the lying.

But that didn't explain Rosalie's mysterious lack of aging, not to mention Edward's…

Edward. I looked back to him, sitting next to the person who might be my sister. He, for one, was impossible to mistake. The topaz eyes, that strange shade of bronze hair…no, that definitely couldn't be anyone else.

Slowly, cautiously, my possibly-sister stood up. Her gaze was fixed on Renesmee, who was now standing with one arm around Jacob's waist. She was looking back, waiting for a reaction.

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen," she said quietly, "what have you done?"

"Mom, she would have found out anyway. Jake and I just helped her along."

Nessie had called her 'Mom.'

She was shaking her head now, looking at Nessie with unreadable emotion in her eyes. "We didn't know that for certain. Even Alice didn't know…" Alice. Was Alice here, too?

"That's just because of me! Mom, she saw Rosalie in one of your wedding pictures. It doesn't take much to connect the dots."

Everyone looked a little shocked at this information. It was the blonde man at the other end of the table that answered first.

"When did she figure out?"

"Just now, I think. She came and asked me about it, so I told her I'd try to explain. She wants to know, and not much is going to stop her."

The blonde man spoke again: "But how did we—"

"—not know she was asking?" Nessie finished. "We lied, obviously. You can't be all-knowing all the time, you know." She grinned, and the tension seemed to relax just a little. I might have been imagining it, though.

"That still doesn't explain why she wants to know in the first place," Rosalie added, examining her fingernails.

I sighed, wishing they would quit talking about me like I wasn't right there. Besides, I was confused enough without listening to their conversation.

Edward suddenly chuckled a bit. It sounded like music.

"If you'd really like to know, you might try asking her yourself. She _is _standing right in front of us." Well, at least _someone_ was on the same page as me. Or knew which page I was on, anyway.

"She sort of has a point, Sienna," Nessie told me. "Why _are_ you so desperate to know?" Everyone looked at me expectantly.

Okay, now I was irked. "Shouldn't that be kind of obvious?" I asked. "I come all the way here from Florida to try to find my sister, only to meet her daughter, who tells me that she's in New Hampshire, and that I can't talk to her at all. Then I meet that daughter's 'cousin,' who somehow attended my sister's wedding eighteen years ago and looks exactly the same now as she did then. And, on top of all that, you all have some sort of dangerous secret that's driving me nuts, but that you won't give away! You're _giving_ me reasons to be curious, and you want to know why I'm desperate to know?" I was practically shouting, and had to take a deep breath to get control of myself.

Edward raised an eyebrow. "Are you done?"

"For now…I think."

"Well, good," a voice said. It came from the direction of the kitchen. "It's about time we got to the happy family reunion part."

After every other unexplainable thing I'd seen tonight, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when Alice Cullen entered the dining room, followed by a tall, gorgeous, muscular man with honey-blond hair. She, like the others, looked exactly the way she had in Bella's wedding pictures, except that her short, black hair was a spiky disarray on top of her head, instead of the sleek curls she'd been wearing on the day of the wedding.

She noticed my stare and gave me a friendly grin. "Hi! I'm Alice."

"Um…yeah," was my intelligent response. Jacob and Nessie both laughed.

I finally turned to Bella and found that she was looking at me, as well. There were so many things that were wrong, that didn't make sense…and yet there she was, right in front of me. My sister, the sister I'd come all the way to Forks, Washington to find.

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on?" I asked, not taking my eyes off of my sister. It was Bella who decided to respond.

"It really would be better for everyone if you didn't know."

I sighed. I had figured it would turn out that way.

Bella stepped carefully around the table, not taking her eyes from me, while everyone else remained frozen. Her movements were fluid and graceful, even with her caution. She stopped right in front of me.

"So, you're my sister, then?" she asked.

One side of my mouth tugged into a grin. "My name's Sienna."

"I know," she said, returning my small smile. She held out one pale, slender hand to me. My fingers cautiously made contact, and I gasped. Her hand was as cold as ice. But I held on, not wanting to seem disgusted, or afraid.

"You look a lot like my mom," she said quietly.

"_Our _mom," I reminded her.

"Yeah, _our_ mom," she amended.

Suddenly and inexplicably, I grinned. Even _she_ didn't deny it. This was really my sister. I threw my arms around her, giggling like a little girl. I ignored the fact that she felt like a solid slab of granite in my arms, not to mention that she was unnaturally cold.

She hesitated for a moment, as though she hadn't expected this, but I felt her cold arms slowly snake around me, holding me in a surprisingly gentle embrace.

And just like that, I was hugging Isabella Cullen, no longer a stranger, but a sister. _My _sister.

* * *

**Okay, so there you have it! I know, you're all waiting for Sienna to find out, and she will...eventually. Soon, I promise. I meant for this chapter to be a bit longer, but you'll have a new one soon, I promise. Even I didn't think I could write this fast!**

**I have so far gotten eleven reviews for this chapter. ELEVEN!! Thanks to everyone who took the time to review, and especially to the people who wrote those really nice paragraphs and asked me questions. I like questions; they tell me what I'm leaving out :)**

**And now we come to the important part: the plot. There are two ways that this plot could go in my mind, but I don't want to tell you and spoil either of the surprises. So, here's what we'll do. Only one plot leads to a sequel, so if you'd like to see a sequel after this one is finished, please mention it in your review, or PM me, whatever. I know it seems a bit early to think about a sequel, but there are important things that need to happen starting after this chapter. _I_ want to write the sequel, but if you don't want one, that's okay too.**

**So, please review. Thank you for reading, as well :)**


	8. Chapter 8

"You came all the way here from Florida to find me?" Bella asked. "Why?"

Everyone present had found a seat somewhere in the living room, minus Rosalie, who had stalked off somewhere, and Emmett, who had gone after his girlfriend. I'd been introduced to Jasper, the blonde man who had entered with Alice, as well as Carlisle and Esme, the other two at the table. Now I was wedged on an eggshell-white loveseat next to Jacob and Nessie. The 'happy family reunion part,' as Alice had put it, hadn't lasted long. Apparently, I was now going to be subjected to a police interrogation.

"Well, that seems to be the question of the week," I muttered grimly. If anyone had heard, then they didn't acknowledge it. Bella, however, continued to look at me in expectation.

"I wanted to see you, okay?" Even as I said it, I had a feeling it _wasn't_ okay.

"But when you first met Nessie, she told you I wasn't here, right?" my sister asked, shooting a glance at Nessie.

"She was lying, obviously," I said through clenched teeth.

"Well, you know that _now_," Alice explained, "but if Renesmee told you yesterday that Bella wasn't here, why did you stay?"

"What was I going to do, hop on a plane that same night? Pack up and go home, just because Nessie said I should? Do you know how much money I put out for the plane ticket? It would be stupid to just leave without at least doing a little sightseeing or _something_ like that."

"She's got a point," Jacob

"So, you decided to stay in Forks, the rainiest town in the state, for a large portion of your vacation, just because you're already here?" Edward asked me.

This was becoming ridiculous. "_Yes_, I did. Why are you trying so hard to get rid of me, anyway?"

"I think you'd prefer not to know," Carlisle said, skirting the issue yet again. Before I could protest, Bella spoke again.

"How's your family? How's Mom?"

_Mom_, I thought. _I needed to call her soon, let her know how I was doing. She must be worried out of her mind._

"Is she okay?" Bella's voice seemed concerned, but I couldn't really be sure.

I sighed. "She's healthy, if that's what you mean."

"No, that's not what I mean."

I crossed my arms and stared at her, but it was hard to look at her eyes and stay focused. They seemed to be burning, the way some people's eyes turn so intense when they're angry. Bella's eyes weren't burning with anger, though; it seemed more like…hope. Or anticipation, maybe.

"Perhaps we should leave you and Sienna alone, Bella," Carlisle suggested. "There are probably some family matters you'd like to discuss privately." He stood up, Esme moving with him, and they left the room together. Alice and Jasper quickly followed them. Edward lingered, his mouth hovering by Bella's ear. He could have been speaking to her, except that I couldn't hear any noise that suggested words. She smiled at him faintly, and he touched a hand to her cheek before turning and walking away.

Nessie and Jake were still in the room, both planted next to me on the loveseat. Nessie didn't look as if she were planning to go anywhere. Bella smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Renesmee, aren't you leaving?"

Nessie scoffed. "Leaving? No, I don't think so. Why would I be?"

"As Carlisle said, we _are_ trying to have a private family discussion."

"Renee is your mother, and that makes her my grandmother," Nessie said, crossing her arms to match mine. "Renee is my family too. I barely know anything about her, and you're insane if you think I'm going to leave so that you can talk about her for the first time in my existence."

She turned to Jacob next. "Jake, this is a family matter. I would appreciate it if you'd go for a while."

"I'm family too, aren't I? I'm not leaving if Nessie's staying."

"Really, Jake, I don't think you should stick around."

Nessie gave him a quick smile. "It'll be fine. Wait for me in the garage, okay?"

He thought about it for a fraction of a second before grinning at Nessie and making his way out the front door.

I turned to stare at Bella again, keeping my arms firmly folded across my chest, completely forgetting about Nessie.

"So, what do you want to know?" I asked.

"What's Mom doing?"

"I don't really know." I answered. "She teaches kindergarten, but school isn't in session right now."

"How is she?"

"Okay."

Bella's face, hopeful for a few moments, had turned sad. "Please, give me a little more, Sienna. I haven't seen her for years."

I narrowed my eyes in her direction. "Why didn't you see her, if you care so much about her?"

"It's not something I can explain." She sounded guilty, which should have shocked me, but I was too angry to care.

"What? You haven't so much as said 'Hello' to our mother in years, and that's the _only_ excuse you can manage?"

"It's not a good one, I know, but it's the best I have."

I stood, too agitated to sit anymore. "You ignored her, Bella. I can tell how much she misses you! She never talked about you—never—unless I asked her. She probably thinks you hate her!"

"What do _you_ think, Sienna?" Bella asked. "Do _you_ think I hate her?"

"I don't think; I know."

"Please, don't say that."

"Why shouldn't I? It's true. She said she sent you a card when I was born, and you didn't even bother to respond! Do you realize that she has no idea what's happened to you? You could be dead, for all she knows!"

Bella sat, stunned and perfectly still. It looked as though she wasn't even breathing. If it wasn't for the living grief written on her face, she could have passed for a corpse.

"You didn't have to say that," Nessie muttered, and I blushed. I'd forgotten she was still in the room.

My sister seemed to have recovered herself once more. "I did what I did for her safety, and Phil's, and yours. There are some things I wouldn't want her to get involved with. Some things need to stay secret."

"Would this be the same, ultra-exclusive, dangerous secret that you want to send me away over?" My remark was met with silence. "Yeah, I thought so."

"I know it sounds ridiculous," Bella explained, "but—"

"Don't even _try_ to explain."

"I have good reasons for what I've done, Sienna, and I'm sorry it had to be this way. But, right now, I just want to know about Mom."

I paused, studying my newly-found sister. Even as perfect and beautiful as she was, she managed to look unbearably sad, desperate, even. And, as angry as I had been a few seconds ago, I was suddenly sad, too. If I were going to pretend for one second that my sister's secret was as dangerous as she claimed, then who was I to leave her in the dark?

At the same time, I was as desperate for answers as she was. Didn't I want to know why she'd disappeared? How it was possible that Bella, who should be in her late thirties, still looked as young as I was? How she had golden eyes, and cold, pale skin?

An idea began to form in my head. It seemed sort of cruel, especially because it was my sister, but this was probably the only leverage I had over her. Besides, I'd done worse things.

"If I tell you about Mom, will you tell me what you're all hiding from me?"

She blinked, considering. I put my hands on my hips and waited.

Cautiously, she answered, "I'll think it over, and talk to the others about it, okay?"

I smiled. "Not _quite_ what I'm looking for, but I'll take it."

* * *

**I'm ba-ack! This took so much longer than I expected, and I'm really sorry. I needed a mental vacation, I guess, and everything in this chapter refused to come together until Friday night!**

**This time I'm going to thank everyone who read this, particularly each and every one of my wonderful reviewers! You guys rock! Please keep the comments coming. I like questions, too. Oh, and I thank everyone in support of the sequel. It thrills me to know people want more!**

**Again, sorry for the delay, and the shortness of the chapters. They're shrinking a bit, I know, but I'm hoping they'll get longer again soon :) I leave this chapter in the capable hands of reviewers; pick it apart as you may!**


	9. Chapter 9

I woke up the next morning around six and stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking about my sister.

That hour and a half I'd spent with Bella the past night was probably the most surreal of my life so far, despite the fact that it had seemed so _normal_.

We had stayed in the living room for a while, just talking. Bella wanted me to tell her about Renee as soon as possible, and after the blackmailing I'd just done, I didn't mind sharing. I trusted that she would remember her end of the bargain and talk to her family about letting me in on the secret.

Jacob and Edward had both returned to the room within five minutes of my deal with Bella, which made me think that neither of them had gone very far. I didn't mind their presence, and no one told them to leave.

Then I'd told Bella some stories about my mom, like the time I nearly missed a piano recital because she "lost" her keys on the kitchen table, or the crazy vacation that our family took in the Rocky Mountains when I was nine. Bella had listened to these stories with some kind of obsessed attention. Her eyes never left my face as I described things to her, and she'd seemed happier every time I told her something new.

She'd asked me a little about myself, and I had told her. I loved old music and shoes, I was practically addicted to cappuccino, and I had wanted a dog since the time I was four, but never got one. I would have asked her the same kind of questions, but it seemed stupid to do so. Although she looked like a teenager, she was really in her thirties. I was also afraid I'd get another one of those "_We can't tell you on pain of death,"_ answers. I was getting quite sick of those.

I also made sure to keep away from any "controversial" topics, such as where the Cullen family had been for the last couple of decades, or why Bella looked so different from how she should look. I would save those for the time that they decided to reveal their secret. If they didn't tell me, I'd find another way to get answers.

I probably could have talked to her for hours, except that I only got through one and a half when my eyelids started to droop. As much as I wanted to trade stories, my internal clock was still mostly on Florida time. Everyone in the room seemed to notice the first time I yawned.

"Sorry," I had said, "but I should probably go to sleep soon, or risk passing out on the couch here."

Bella had simply smiled at me and told me she understood, and that we could talk some more tomorrow, if I wanted.

"What? You guys aren't going to mysteriously vanish before tomorrow morning?" I'd asked, only half teasing.

"Nope," Bella said smiling. "No disappearing acts."

Satisfied with this answer, I'd gone upstairs, slipped into my pajamas, and fell asleep as soon as I was in bed.

Nessie was still asleep. I didn't blame her. If I wasn't so wired about finding my sister and all, I would have slept until eleven, or noon.

I showered and dressed quickly, and slipped downstairs. The house was quiet, but not in that early-morning way. Actually, it seemed empty, as though the people were not present, instead of just not awake.

Just as I reached the foot of the stairs, I heard the front door open. It was Jacob, letting himself in.

"You're up pretty early," I teased him, wondering how much time he actually spent in this house.

"And you're not?" he countered, grinning at me. He wore cutoff jeans and a t-shirt that showed off his muscles.

"Hey, in my defense, I'm used to a different time zone, and I just met the sister I never knew last night. How long do you think you'd be able to sleep?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, true. How are you holding up, then?"

"Pretty well," I said, sitting down in one of the living room chairs, while Jake sprawled out on the couch. "The curiosity is eating me alive," I added jokingly.

Jacob didn't seem to find this funny. "You'd probably be better off just leaving it alone, Sienna," he said.

I heaved an exasperated sigh. "Not you, too! Is this your idea of a game? '_Let's see how fast we can drive Sienna Dwyer crazy!_'"

Jake grinned easily. "Hey, enough sarcasm! Remember, Ness and I helped you! Most of the Cullens didn't even want you to know that your sister was here! At least you get the privilege of knowing her."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you did help me. So, why won't you help me now? You're going to introduce me to my sister, and then tell me I can never know about who she is?"

"Again, it's probably not something you _want_ to know."

And to think I'd really believed that Jake was a good guy. Not that he wasn't nice, of course, but I had hoped he'd be on _my_ side of this argument.

"How would _you _know what _I _want? And really, what could be so bad about them that it will put me in danger just knowing about it? I mean, c'mon! You're treating this like something out of a horror movie! There has to be a limit to how bad this can be!"

Jake raised an eyebrow. "You'd be surprised."

"It doesn't seem like such a bad thing, either," I continued, ignoring him. "I mean, Bella hasn't gotten older, apparently. She's half the age she should be. Everyone in the family is drop-dead gorgeous, which is definitely not a bad thing. And they're all so…graceful. Especially Alice; her walk looks like she's dancing!"

"Why, thank you!" said a clear, chiming voice from the staircase. Alice Cullen was coming quickly down the stairs, grinning at us. I just could not get over these people.

She approached us, still smiling. "It's going to be sunny later today. You should take advantage of the situation. Nessie's still sleeping, right?" Although it was a question, I had a feeling she already knew.

"Yeah, she's zonked," Jake replied. "It's summer, right? No one cares if she sleeps in. We were all up pretty late last night." He had that look in his eye, the one I noticed he got whenever he was with Nessie, or talking about her, or thinking about her. Honestly, it seemed a little crazy to me how obsessed he was with her, but also very sweet.

Alice flashed a bright smile, and light glinted off of her perfectly white teeth. It was unnaturally beautiful…and also a little frightening.

"Well, I have somewhere to be. I'll talk to both of you later?" Again, she'd asked the question with this odd sureness, as though she already knew the answer.

I nodded, while Jacob shoved his hands in his pockets and rolled his eyes at her. She laughed her tinkling, bell-chime laugh and slipped gracefully out the front door.

Jacob spoke before I could. "I guess that means we're all supposed to go and do something today. Let's go wake Ness."

I frowned. "Quit trying to avoid the topic."

"Listen to me. If you want my opinion, then here it is. Sure, on the surface, it seems like great stuff they have. You'd think everyone would want to be them. I love Nessie, which you've probably noticed already, and nothing would keep me away from her. The Cullens are good people, too. But, personally, I'd _never_ want to be what…well, be in their position. If you knew, you'd agree with me."

I would have been annoyed with that last assumption, but the way he'd spoken had distracted me. '_To be what...well, be in their position.' _I was certain that he'd been about to say _what they are._

What _were_ the Cullens?

"You know that if one of you isn't going to tell me what's going on, I'll find out for myself."

"Good luck with that," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Now, let's go wake Nessie up and get breakfast. I'm starving."

I followed Jake up the stairs, rolling my eyes when I was sure he couldn't see. I _was_ going to find out what they were hiding from me, no matter how long it took.

And, the way I was planning things, it wasn't going to take too long.

* * *

**Okay, I'm _really_ sorry, first off. It's taken me an indecently long time to update, between horrible bouts of writers block, a busy schedule, and-most recently-a computer virus that would not allow me access to the Internet. So, thanks for sticking with me through all of that junk.**

**I have been really inspired by my most recent reviewers to get this chapter finished, so whoo hoo for them! All of you, really. You guys are awesome. So is my Beta, Zara, for fixing my messed-up tenses.**

**I know there's not much plot here that you don't already know, but I promise the next chapter will have something interesting and new. However, I _don't_ know when I will be posting aforementioned chapter. I am continuing, of course, but it may take a while, so please be patient while I gather my thoughts and make sure my prose is decent, m'kay? Thanks a bunch, and don't forget to review!  
**


	10. Chapter 10

To my dismay, this morning turned out much like the previous one. Granted, the weather was nicer, but a lot of the same events played out in the same order. When Jake finally woke Nessie, we went down and got breakfast at the same diner we'd eaten at a few days ago. Nessie still barely touched her food while Jake ate enough for several people. We made the drive into town again and, sure enough, the sun was shining brightly by the time we got out of the car. Funny—the thick layer of clouds earlier in the morning had suggested the complete opposite.

We messed around in town a bit more. Now that I'd already seen everything worth mentioning, we cruised around in the car a little, chatting and messing with the radio. As annoyed as I was with their secrecy, I just couldn't bring myself to be frustrated with Nessie or Jake.

While we were getting lunch, my cell phone went off. Not surprisingly, the caller ID read: MOM. I looked up at Nessie and Jacob, who were sitting across from me. It probably wouldn't be good to talk to Renee in front of them, but I didn't want to ignore her call, either.

"Excuse me, guys. I should take this," I said, smiling apologetically and slipping out of the restaurant booth. Nessie smiled and shrugged; Jacob ignored me and continued eating.

Just to be safe, I slipped through a waiting crowd and out the front door, where no one would be able to hear me, and answered the phone.

"Hey, Mom," I said. "How's it going?"

I could hear the smile in her voice as she answered. "Sienna, honey, where are you? It took you so long to answer; I was afraid I'd get voicemail."

"Relax, Mom. We're getting lunch and the restaurant was crowded. I'm outside now so I can hear."

"Oh, really? I hope I didn't interrupt anything."

"Just eating. What did you want?"

"To check in with you, of course. Do you like it up there? What have you been doing?"

I played it casual. "Nothing much, just messing around in town, shopping, eating out, a little bit of sightseeing. Not that interesting."

"Oh." She sounded a little surprised, as if she expected me to be more talkative. "Well, that does sound fun."

"Yeah, it is. Um, I should probably get back to lunch now. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Sure, honey," she replied, not quite disguising the dismay in her voice. I was sorry I had to upset her like this, but if there was anyone who could _not_ know what I was up to in Washington, it had to be my mother.

"Thanks, Mom. I love you!" Before she could respond, I hung up, slipped my phone back into my purse, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Then I went back into the restaurant.

As I approached the table, Nessie and Jake seemed to be in the midst of some sort of important discussion.

"I promised I wouldn't..." Jake said to Nessie. She looked up at him from under her lashes with big, pleading, chocolate-brown eyes, and bit her bottom lip. It was like watching a child ask her older brother to give her candy while their mother was gone. "Please?" she asked him.

Jake looked as though he was about to reply when, suddenly, his head whipped around towards me, almost as if he had sensed me walking up behind him. The way they always seemed to know when I was close was more than a little weird, and it bothered me more than all the rest of the weird stuff.

I smiled as I took my seat. "Sorry about that," I told them. "It was my mom."

"It's okay," Nessie replied, grinning back. "I know what you mean."

I kept the smile on my face, but my eyebrows started to furrow as I wondered if she really meant that. Was her mom, my sister, really anything like my mother? Bella didn't seem like the type of person to call her daughter five times a day wanting to know how she was. Then again, Bella also looked the same age as me, when she should be about twice that age. How would I know what to believe about her parenting style?

And there it was again—the endless curiosity about the entire situation was beginning to make my head hurt.

Jacob was still looking at me, scrutinizing. His face was wary, like he knew I'd caught him saying something he wasn't supposed to say, and he was now trying to figure out how much I'd heard. I looked back at him and felt a mischievous grin appear on my face; I couldn't make heads or tails of the four or five words I'd heard of their conversation, but I was enjoying the anxiety he was practically seeping. If he wasn't going to tell me what I wanted to know, then I would have fun watching him sweat.

Jake and I finished our meals in relative silence—Nessie, of course, barely ate—and the three of us left the restaurant.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of seeing another badly-scripted movie in Port Angeles, the drive back to Forks, and me lying on the bed listening to my iPod, while I watched Nessie go through her wardrobe piece by piece. Apparently, a few members of Nessie's family were of the opinion that pieces of clothing should only be worn once, and she intended to go through them and give some to me, if I happened to be interested.

After an hour and a half of relaxing and laughing through what ended up being a fashion show starring Nessie, Jake appeared again. When we came home, he had taken off to wherever he lived, and came back in time to suggest watching another movie. I was beginning to understand why Bella spent so much of her childhood in Phoenix; there seemed to be no form of entertainment in Forks aside from watching movies. Living here year round must have been like watching paint dry.

When Nessie headed downstairs to make popcorn, I excused myself to the bathroom. I spent a little more time than normal there, redoing my hair a couple of times for no reason. I was hoping Nessie would be back when I returned to the room; Jacob had been giving me those looks again like he did at lunch. I didn't want him to take the opportunity to interrogate me while Nessie was gone for a few minutes.

I walked slowly back towards Nessie's room, trying to make sure she was there before I headed back in. In the end, it was her voice that gave it away.

"...can't hold out much longer, Jake," she was whining.

"Tonight," he sighed in response. "We'll go tonight, I promise."

I stored that gold nugget of conversation away for later reference and walked slowly back into the room, only to find both of them looking quite normal and cheery. Nessie was throwing pieces of popcorn at Jacob, who was catching them in his mouth and grinning while Nessie pretended to be frustrated.

"We picked a movie," Nessie said, waving the case at me. "Hope you don't mind." I shrugged and plopped myself down on the bed while scooping out a handful of popcorn. "Whatever's fine," I told her, and she got up to start the movie.

The second important piece of information I needed was shared, ironically enough, by Jacob, while Nessie was skipping through the previews.

"I noticed that half your garage was empty tonight. Everyone gone, then?"

Nessie nodded. "Emmett was being whiney, and they decided to check out and go camping for the night. Except Mom and Dad; they're over in their cottage, in case something goes wrong."

Although Nessie's explanation made no rational sense, I had gotten what I wanted from Jacob. None of the other Cullens were in the house tonight. It was the last thing I had been expecting, but probably the best thing that could have happened as far as my plotting was going.

As we watched, my mind wasn't anywhere near being focused on the movie. Another one of those plans was forming in my mind—the kind of plans that are stupid and ridiculous and seem like the perfect idea until you actually try to execute them and then watch the whole thing explode before your eyes by the second step.

Yes, I was _that_ desperate.

Tonight was the perfect time. Nessie and Jake were planning something of their own, and everyone else was gone. This was my window of opportunity, and I was _not_ going to miss it.

* * *

**So, yeah. I have lots of excuses for not updating in over six months, but you don't want to hear them. Sorry. I would let you guys maul me, but then you wouldn't find out what happens next. The next chapter is the interesting one, I promise!  
**

**Your thoughts are always appreciated. I haven't given up--the middle of this story is the hardest part to write. Let me know what you think, and I will have the next chapter whenever I can, if you're all still here. And alive.  
**


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